Like
Finding a Needle in a Haystack?Comparing the Mexican Sanctuary Region
to the Expanse of the Monarchs' Eastern Range

The
area in red measures over 9 million square kilometers.

Stop and think
for a minute. The monarchs that are now funneling through Texas and into
Mexico have come from points across eastern North America. At the latitude
of the southern tip of Texas, the monarchs' flight path is only about 8%
as wide as it was when they started from their breeding grounds in the North.

This map shows the HUGE area in North America across which monarchs move
on their way to the sanctuaries in Mexico. The area in red measures over
9 million square kilometers!

In contrast, the sanctuaries are a tiny speck on the planet. They are clustered
into a tiny region that measures only 800 square kilometers. This means
the Monarchs find an area that is 11,000 times smaller than the area the
migration crosses. Finding a needle in a haystack almost sounds easy in
comparison! The monarchs certainly seem to know where they're going, don't
they?

Try
This: Journaling Question
Calculate the area of a standard football field, then answer this question:

"Finding the Mexican sanctuaries in the North American continent is
like finding a _____ on a football field. (Fill in the blank with something
to scale. That is, name an object that's 11,000 times smaller than a football
field.)"

Here are the dimensions of a football field:

Length
of field: 120 yards (including 10 yards of end zone at each end).